Re: One Canal (formerly Greenway Center, Bullfinch Triangle)
No development, no wrecking ball. The area was not included in the massive clearing of Scollay Sq or the West End. I believe it was because it was filled with going concerns re: light industry, etc. It was a part of the city that was still working as originally intended, and was not as affected by the rabid sports culture that now surrounds the Garden. The elevated Orange and Green lines as well as the expressway cutting through the area kind of preserved the Triangle in time, since no one was about the fool with those transit systems when urban renewal was most popular. Add to that the fact that this is filled in land, created by Bulfinch when the causeway which helped to regulate the tides and run grain mills was used (similar to Beacon Street in the Back Bay) as a primary connector on which North Station's various buildings were eventually erected (prior to the Manger and the Garden). The area, once filled, also hosted a canal (adjacent to Canal St.) which connected the Charles and harbor with the inland Haymarket area. The canal, once filled in, became the perfect place for RR tracks going to the station in Haymarket Sq. which eventually merged with North Station. So the area was caught in a kind of time warp and left alone to this day. Hopefully future infill will be sensitive to the scale of the area.
